AUO continues to strengthen its technology edge of high contrast and wide color gamut by presenting an enhanced version of ALCD technology. Through a comprehensive HDR design, the display can achieve as high as 2000-nit brightness with significantly higher contrast. Its low reflective quality helps to deliver high HDR image quality even in daylight, perfectly capturing both bright and dark image details. By adopting environmentally-friendly cadmium-free quantum dots with high color saturation, the display can reveal rich and detailed color depth, with a wide color gamut exceeding NTSC 110% in all environments, boasting an overall higher image quality than OLED TV. Having been the first(*) to present bezel-less display on all four sides, AUO applies its self-developed GOA (Gate on Array) technology to significantly lower the number of display driver ICs and expand the display viewing area. This not only allows for a seemingly boundless, holistic view, but also a sleek and stylish appearance.

AUO leverages its advantages in technological integration and has again achieved specification breakthrough to introduce the world’s largest(*) 85-inch 8K4K bezel-less ALCD TV display with 120Hz high refresh rate to deliver smooth motion flow with impressive image quality. The features of 8K4K images are thoroughly manifested through the large-sized TV panel. From mountains standing afar to objects and figures up close, all images demonstrate stunning clarity and stereoscopic effect, as if all characters have stepped out of the screen, vividly depicting the most exquisite image details and true colors. When marveling the large-sized screen, the audience can perceive the most intricate image details.

Sharp Corp. said it will release the world’s first commercially available 8K-compatible TV sets in October in China and on Dec. 1 in Japan.

The 70-inch model to be marketed in Japan will be priced at around 1 million yen ($9,100), excluding tax.

The ultra-high definition liquid crystal TV series will become available in Taiwan in February and in Europe in March, Sharp said.

Through a receiver released separately, the new TV sets can receive 8K broadcast programs, which offer picture quality that is four times more detailed than the 4K standard.

Sharp’s new sets can also convert lower-definition programs into 8K quality, the company said.

Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) is expected to start its 8K broadcasting on a full-scale basis in December 2018.

Sharp decided to market an 8K TV set before 8K broadcasts start in Japan to get a head start on its rivals.

The Japanese company is proceeding with its business reconstruction plans under the umbrella of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. of Taiwan and intends to make products based on its 8K technology its core business.

The 8K TVs to be sold in Japan will be manufactured in Sharp’s plant in Yaita, Tochigi Prefecture.

Japan officially starts broadcasting television programs in 8K at the end of 2018.

TOKYO -- Electronic parts maker Nitto Denko and a Keio University team have developed a large-bandwidth optical cable for high-definition televisions that will be inexpensive enough to put 8K broadcasts into Japanese households.

The Japanese team aims to put the cable on the market in 2019. Domestic TV stations begin officially broadcasting 8K signals at the end of 2018. Corporations already have installed the necessary high-capacity cables linking their business bases ahead of the 8K launch. But such cables have yet to penetrate homes, which could limit the reach of 8K broadcasts.

Keio's group, led by professor Yasuhiro Koike, devised optical fibers made from plastic instead of glass. The fibers offer inherent noise resistance that precludes the need for noise reduction components, likely cutting the cost of these cables by at least 90% compared with the glass-fiber alternative. The new cables will be affordable for families, and also may be adopted for data center servers and high-definition surgical videos.

Nitto Denko and Koike's team plan to form a joint research site within Keio University next month to maximize connectivity before marketing the cable.

Panasonic and other rivals are developing their own optical cables for 8K signals. Nitto looks to use its own technological expertise to establish mass production techniques quickly. The global market for optical cables in communications is expected to hit roughly $1 billion this year and continue growing to $35 billion in 2025.

ZTE is apparently working on a new flagship smartphone called the Axon M, with the unique headline feature of dual screens that can unfold into a combined 6.8-inch display, according to Android Authority.

The new phone was rumored early in September by Evan Blass over at VentureBeat, who provided the additional details that the new device would feature a Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a 3,120mAh battery, and a single 20-megapixel camera.

Photo: Android AuthorityBut the biggest feature is still the form factor: two 1080p displays that make up the front and back of the device, which can unfold with a centrally located hinge to create one tablet-sized screen that’s twice as wide. According to Android Authority, the two screens will also be able to run two different apps at once, for expanded multitasking beyond what’s currently capable even in Android Oreo.

The leadership upheaval at Samsung Electronics is set to continue with the resignation of CEO and Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun, who said he is stepping down in March because "the company needs a new leader more than ever."

Kwon, who will also be departing his role as CEO of Samsung Display at that time, has served as CEO of the South Korean tech giant since 2012 and as vice chairman since 2011.

The resignation follows the August sentencing of Samsung's de facto leader, Jay Y. Lee, to five years in jail in connection with a bribery scandal that also toppled South Korea's former president, Park Geun-hye.

Kwon seems to allude to the scandal in announcing his reasons for resigning. "As we are confronted with unprecedented crisis inside out, I believe that time has now come for the company start anew, with a new spirit and young leadership to better respond to challenges arising from the rapidly changing IT industry," he said in the Samsung news release.

Samsung won’t make an OLED TV, but may have something else up its sleeveGiven the rivalry between the two South Korean titans of tech, there is no way in hell Samsung is going to give in and make an OLED TV. To do so, it would not only have to concede its long-held belief that OLED is an inferior long-term technology, it would also have to either build a big OLED panel production facility for its TVs, or tuck its tail between its legs and buy OLED panels from LG, just like Sony — LG’s only OLED competition — does. None of that is happening, trust me.

I do, however, think it is possible Samsung could use a new technology called microLED, which could end up being the company’s answer to OLED.

If the unveiling was translated into a Trump tweet, it might have said: "Wow. Did everybody see that beautiful, shiny Micro LED TV by Samsung? So huge. So true. OLED is old news. Losers!"

There was a Trump-esque whiff of Samsung flexing its muscles at the unveiling, to be sure. CES is where tech companies show off their best and the brightest, but most of them are prototypes; some of them you never hear about again. And unlike OLED TVs, which LG and other rivals are pushing hard, Micro LED isn't commercialized. But Samsung says it will definitely go on sale, likely this year.

If it does, Micro LED may turn out to be Samsung's Visual Display (VD) business' biggest coup in over a decade. But it's about more than just money. At its core, the strategy to go Micro LED before anyone else is a standard business 101 strategy: be the creator of the market, dominate market share, and reap all the profits. But it will also show whether the company is truly a "leader" in TVs.

Unlike its other businesses, Samsung's position as number one in TVs has never been cemented, that is accepted by its rivals, the media, and public, and this frustrates the VD business no end. In memory chips, the company has been number one for over 20 years with a market share hovering around 50 percent. In smartphones, it's the biggest seller of Android phones, despite China eating away at its market share. And although having been number one in TVs for 13 years, a market share of around mid-20 percent translates as Samsung having to square up to more challengers than it does in chips and phones.

The launch of quantum dot (QD) LCD TVs in 2015 was in, a lot of ways, its first true test as a leader. It was Samsung trying out its leadership heft. It was renamed QLED in 2017, but the negative comparison to OLED persisted.

The firm has now built a wall around itself against rivals; it's Micro LED against the others. Micro LED is much more difficult to commercialise than QD LCD TVs. The former is a fundamental shift, while the latter expands on legacy technology, know-how, and equipment. It will take time.

Businesses that evolve a rapid, customer-centric approach to application development and delivery are best positioned to innovate in their markets. These organizations can respond to market opportunities so fast that it becomes a competitive advantage....

But it's a long game that Samsung has played before. A rough example of the company's "my way" strategy succeeding is AMOLED (active matrix organic light-emitting diode) displays on smartphones. When it was introduced 10 years ago, consumers were so unfamiliar with what AMOLED was that Samsung made a music video with a K-Pop girl group for promotions. Earlier iterations in smartphones were ridiculed for being too bright, and other vendors mostly went with LCD.

A decade later, LG switched from LCD to OLED displays for its G6 phone last year. Apple is buying them from Samsung and has applied them to the iPhone X. Chinese vendors buy huge quantities of AMOLED from the South Korean tech giant for their flagships. None of them like buying from Samsung but they have no other vendor that offers them at scale.

So how does Micro LED actually fare against OLED? Both emit light on their own without a backlight, the core feature of both technologies. Both have, pretty much, a contrast ratio of 10,000 to 1. Power consumption wise, both are better than LCD. Both are equal in perfect black. Resolution wise, Micro LED pixels per inch is superior, because one LED is made at a micrometre pixel-level. Micro LED doesn't have any colour filters, while the current OLED uses a white color filter -- hence Samsung's calling out LG's OLED as "not true OLED".

The two biggest advantages Micro LED will have over OLED will be lifespan and customization. OLED's big drawback has been the burn-ins. Because OLED uses organic material, the pixels die out faster; Micro LED on the other hand will use inorganic material that lasts longer. Micro LED will also make it easier for Samsung to make them bigger or smaller. OLED, meanwhile, is made from a set substrate size that can't be altered.

Samsung's persistence will be key as OLED is already well-established. From flexible to lighting, LG has positioned itself well as an innovator, despite being number two in market share. If Samsung backtracks now, it will be an admission of loss. The stakes are higher than when it launched LED TVs or QLED TV, because this is about the next-generation of TV picture technology.

Samsung does have another advantage: the convergence trend. Convergence is a word that has for a while been thrown around by attendees of CES, but indicators seem to point to one big difference this time, in the form of artificial intelligence (AI). And Samsung, being the word's largest electronics maker by revenue, has a portfolio in electronics -- phones, chips,displays, home appliances, and since last year, Harman -- that rivals can only dream of.

Samsung has dubbed its convergence strategy, without irony, One Samsung. Basically it comes down to linking its different products together. There are a lot of iterations of this -- Bixby, SmartThings, and Family Hub. The company showed off an 8K QLED TV that converts low resolution video into 8K, a teaser of sorts. The company is also planning to launch its first AI speaker this year.

Using Micro LED's modular capabilities and leveraging its other portfolios, Samsung will have ample room for innovation. If executed well, the company can finally prove itself an innovator, not a follower, in TVs and beyond.